Not to sound like a jerk, but I hate the term "sustainable".
I recently entered a “sustainable seafood” competition with this paella recipe despite my dislike of the term “sustainable”.
What’s my problem with “sustainable”?
The quick answer: the term has lost all meaning over the past sixty years of overuse. "Sustainable projects" -- from fisheries, to agriculture, to oil recovery-- have done little to increase individual autonomy; rather, they do more to consolidate the power of large exploiters of renewable resources.
The push for “sustainable” production and resource extraction is oddly similar to the same rhetoric used to justify the “green revolution” in the 70’s and 80’s when international funders, like the World Bank and the IMF, dictated how large loans would be spent by third world countries.
For many of these projects, there was an emphasis on the use of new technologies to increase farming yields, to increase natural resources extraction, such as water and minerals, and to increase the overall productivity of nations.
What this lead to, particularly in Latin American countries, was the over-production of specific types of cash crops (ie coffee), livestock (beef cattle are a great excuse to clear cut rain forest, and their sharp little hooves are wonderful for tearing up the soil to be washed away), and an over dependence on “green technologies” such as fertilizers that leave soils inarable after a few years effectively making farmers' crops “addicted” to chemicals.
Instead of championing “sustainable” food, we should be championing “smart” food, or “local” food. Ignorance is no longer an excuse -- though the high price of “sustainable” and “organic” food is – for not eating wisely.
Why enter the contest?
We need to keep this conversation going. There is no easy fix, but unless we discuss, someone else will be making the choices for us and that is healthy for no one.
